Tourism boom brings record building to Lapland

Lapland is seeing an exceptional surge in tourism accommodation construction, with record numbers of permits issued in Rovaniemi and Kittilä, Yle reports. More than half of the building permits granted in Kittilä are for accommodation serving tourism, according to municipal building inspector Laura Fagerholm.

A Yle survey of municipal building control offices found that construction sites in Lapland’s tourism destinations have been busy over the summer. The boom contrasts with the continued downturn in housing construction elsewhere in Finland and has brought contractors to Lapland from as far away as southern Finland, said Juha Mäntynen, regional director for northern Finland at the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries.

That influx means the construction boom may not show directly in local employment figures, Mäntynen said, because some of the workforce comes from elsewhere. Building has also increased in Ylläs, in the municipality of Kolari, and at Pyhätunturi in Pelkosenniemi. Muonio had a high volume of construction last year.

International winter tourism to Lapland has grown for several years, and the coming season is expected to set another record. Finavia said earlier this week that Lapland’s airports will receive many new flight connections. Accommodation capacity is also rising, including through unregistered short-term rentals.

Many cabins arrive ready to install

More accommodation buildings, including cabins and glass igloos designed for viewing the northern lights, are now manufactured elsewhere and transported to Lapland as complete units. Installation at the destination can then be quick.

The trend has prompted discussion in the construction industry about how much of Lapland’s tourism building work will take place away from the destinations themselves, Mäntynen said.

At Vikaköngäs, a popular outdoor recreation area in Rovaniemi, one holiday village has been built in just a few months. Jari Virtanen, operational director of the Oulu-based family company Halo Igloos, said its accommodation units arrive as complete structures from the company’s own factory in Rantsila. He estimates that a growing share of the prefabricated units brought to Lapland are made in Finland. A few years ago, he said, there was a trend towards sourcing buildings from Estonia.

Construction varies across Lapland

Kittilä has issued 233 building permits, more than half of them for tourist accommodation around Levi or Ylläsjärvi. Fewer than 200 permits were granted last year. A single permit can cover several buildings. The most common holiday accommodation is a semi-detached building with two units, while a newer trend is compact villages of small prefabricated homes, often with a large glass facade.

Rovaniemi has several projects in which one permit covers multiple small cabins or igloos. The city has also received six applications for apartment hotels.

In Kolari, 88 holiday homes have been approved so far this year, most of them in Ylläs, compared with 133 cabins last year. The most common type is a well-equipped cabin of 60 to 80 square metres; the next most common is a luxury cabin of more than 200 square metres.

In Pelkosenniemi, permits for holiday homes have increased mainly at Pyhätunturi, with some permits covering several small cabins. One distinctive project is a resort with 20 caravan-style cabins. In Muonio, a hotel is under construction and another is being planned. The municipality saw 50 small projects last year, but has had fewer projects this year.